Pete and I went on an actual date this week. Our mode of transportation was Hubba Bubba. Yes, that’s right, we rode our tandem bike for our date.
This was my first time really riding Hubba Bubba , other than an initial spin on our road when we first got it. Since that time, Pete and Graceful have commuted to school/work on it and Pete and Elegant have ridden it downtown, but there were no marital rides until this week.
Have you ever ridden a tandem bike?
It’s a lot of fun and I loved having Pete’s energy help to propel me forward. I worked a lot less hard than I would have if I’d been on Bubbles.
One thing that never occurred to me is that I’d spend the entire time riding blindly, as the upper half of Pete’s body blocked my view forward. Let me tell you, there’s a LOT of trust involved with pedaling furiously but having no idea what’s actually in front of you. We’d come up on, say, parked cars and I flinched every. single. time. because I didn’t see them until the last second.
Another thing that’s taking some getting used to is that my husband bikes faster than I do and at a faster speed than I am comfortable with, so we’d take curves with me gritting my teeth and screaming quietly. Or, we’d go down hills to the soundtrack of me chanting “Not so fast not so fast not so fast!” As we finished our ride, we had so much momentum coming down our street that Pete decided we’d bike up our driveway, which we never ordinarily do, due to the steep grade. My yells that time were along the lines of “You’re going to hit the garage you’re going to hit the garage you’re going to hit the garage.” We didn’t actually hit the garage, but we did stop rather suddenly.
All that said, we had SO MUCH FUN! We usually work well as a team and our biking was very team-like. We had a fun ride and a great dinner and then another fun ride home. We laughed a lot too, which helped shake me out of the bad mood I had been in earlier.
So now I’ve gotten a chance to break in Hubba Bubba. And I loved it.
What’s the most fun you’ve had recently?
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My husband and I went to a free concert in the park. The band is called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers – it’s a bunch of bagpipers who play their own music and rock covers. They were really good and the people watching was fabulous.
Fashion note: I don’t care how great your 50-year-old abs look (and they were indeed great), once you are AARP eligible, you need to cover the part under your boobs. And other Ms Mutton Dressed as Lamb, long blonde locks (dyed) do not go with wrinkles. Sorry, but they don’t. Dress age appropriately, please. A nice looking, well groomed 60 year old is far more attractive than 60 trying to look 18.
I never thought about the back person on a tandem not being able to see ahead, but it makes sense. Hmm, the most fun I’ve had lately? After being away for a couple of weeks, just having a quiet evening in my living room in my favorite chair with my favorite lap quilt and a good book felt positively delicious. Simple pleasures!
I had a beach day with Sorority Girl. We got sandwiches at the deli, spent about 3 hours at Cocoa Beach, explored every corner of Ron Jon Surf Shop then hit Starbucks on the way home.
How recently is recently? My most fun was the paragliding at Lake Tahoe, but that was 3 weeks ago.
Sounds like fun! I had a negative experience with the tandem bike, wherein negative = me basically hauling around a kid who didn’t pedal AND used all of her momentum swaying from side to side to see around me. Wee! Fun!
Those bikes scare me a little — I think it’s that blind trust/not being able to see where you are going.
The most fun I had lately was building Lego’s with my kids.
I probably need to get out more.
The summer I was 15, an ancient tandem bike was my main means of transport and my cousin and I rode it everywhere around the small Canadian beach town where we spent the summer. I rode in the back and I remember my cousing screaming “Stop steering my seat” because I couldn’t resist turning the handle bars on curves and her seat was a little looose. We caused a major family scandal when we left the bike at an amusement park and some boys borrowed it and rode to the beer store and ran into my aunts, who, of course recognized the tandem immediately. We were still hearing about that when I was in my thirties.
A couple weeks ago we went to the African Wildlife Safari. You drive your car through and all these animals come up, and you can feed them. It seems kind of cheesy, but we always end up laughing until we are crying. There are huge buffalo and these cow things with big horns. The buffalo always stick their big heads through the windows and try to “kiss” my husband. My husband isn’t a big emotional-type person, so whenever he starts laughing I just love it.
I am thinking that this tandem bike thing would be good for me and Laura. She hates to ride her bike and a tandem might be just the way to get her out there with me, since I really need to start riding mine owing to my bum toe and inability to get my run on these days. And if Laura doesn’t like it, Tom and I can use it for date night.
Call me a control-freak, I’ve done the tandem thing but don’t like being that trusting. I like to see where I’m going and have an idea how fast I want to get there.
Tandem is definitely a test of trust.